SQL Server Trace Flags

Trace flags can be used to alter the behavior of SQL Server and they can help when diagnosing performance issues as well. During the course of days I've come across cases from where I learnt about them & their purpose; certainly do let me know for any corrections that I may have missed out.

Flags can be set for Session or Global (some are startup) levels though for later some can only be switched at startup using –T (you are suggested to avoid –t which turns on other internal flags) otherwise DBCC TRACEON/TRACEOFF (FlagNo,(-1) optional ) comes quite handy.

Note: This list also contains some numbers which have not been checked, so in case you come across those a have a conflict do let me know.

WARNING: These should be practiced with caution where they may not cause a performance boost and 've an adverse effect in some cases. . They are used in this post for discussion purposes only and may not be supported in future versions.

Flag

Trace Flag Description (underlined are sp_configure’able)

-1

Sets trace flags for all connections.

105

SQL 6.5 – To over ride limitation of max 16 tables or sub queries allowed in a single select statement.

106

SQL 6.5/7 – Disables line number information for syntax errors.

107

SQL 6.5/7/8 – Interprets numbers with a decimal point as float instead of decimal. KB 203787

Consider using when replaying against SQL 8.0, to avoid an attempt to set an encrypted connection.

168

SQL 9/10 – On querying through a view that uses the ORDER BY clause, the result are still returned in random order. KB 926292

204

SQL 6.5 – Backward compatibility switch that enables non-ansi standard behavior. E.g. previously SQL server ignored trailing blanks in the like statement and allowed queries that contained aggregated functions to have items in the group by clause that were not in the select list.

205

SQL 7/8 – Report when a statistics-dependent stored procedure is being recompiled as a result of AutoStat. KB 195565

Provides backward compatibility for nullability behavior. When set, SQL Server has the same nullability violation behavior as that of a ver 4.2:

Processing of the entire batch is terminated if the nullability error (inserting NULL into a NOT NULL field) can be detected at compile time.

Processing of offending row is skipped, but the command continues if the nullability violation is detected at run time.

Behavior of SQL Server is now more consistent because nullability checks are made at run time and a nullability violation results in the command terminating and the batch or transaction process continuing.

244

Disables checking for allowed interim constraint violations. By default, SQL Server checks for and allows interim constraint violations. An interim constraint violation is caused by a change that removes the violation such that the constraint is met, all within a single statement and transaction. SQL Server checks for interim constraint violations for self-referencing DELETE statements, INSERT, and multi-row UPDATE statements. This checking requires more work tables. With this trace flag you can disallow interim constraint violations, thus requiring fewer work tables.

246

Derived or NULL columns must be explicitly named in a select…INTO or create view statement when not done they raise an error. This flag avoids that.

253

Prevents ad-hoc query plans to stay in cache.

257

Will invoke a print algorithm on the XML output before returning it to make the XML result more readable.

Should be used with 310 to show the actual join ordering. Prints information about whether the statistics page is used, the actual selectivity (if available), and what SQL Server estimated the physical and logical I/O would be for the indexes.

310

Prints information about join order. Index selection information is also available in a more readable format using SET SHOWPLAN_ALL, as described in the SET statement.

320

Disables join-order heuristics used in ANSI joins. To see join-order heuristics use flag 310. SQL Server uses join-order heuristics to reduce the no’ of permutations when using the best join order.

323

SQL 6.5 – Reports on the use of update statements using UPDATE in place. Shows a detailed description of the various update methods used.

325

Prints information about the cost of using a non-clustered index or a sort to process an ORDER BY clause.

326

Prints information about estimated & actual costs of sorts. Instructs server to use arithmetic averaging when calculating density instead of a geometric weighted average when updating statistics. Useful for building better stats when an index has skew on the leading column. Use only for updating the stats of a table/index with known skewed data.

330

Enables full output when using the SET SHOWPLAN_ALL option, which gives detailed information about joins.

342

Disables the costing of pseudo-merge joins, thus significantly reducing time spent on the parse for certain types of large, multi-table joins. One can also use SET FORCEPLAN ON to disable the costing of pseudo-merge joins because the query is forced to use the order specified in the FROM clause.

345

Increase the accuracy of choice of optimum order when you join 6 or more tables.

506

Enforces SQL-92 standards regarding null values for comparisons between variables and parameters. Any comparison of variables and parameters that contain a NULL always results in a NULL.

610

SQL 10 – Enable the potential for minimal-logging when:

Bulk loading into an empty clustered index, with no nonclustered indexes

Bulk loading into a non-empty heap, with no nonclustered indexes

611

SQL 9 – When turned on, each lock escalation is recorded in the error log along with the SQL Server handle number.

652

Disables read ahead for the server.

653

Disables read ahead for the current connection.

661

Disables the ghost record removal process. A ghost record is the result of a delete operation. When you delete a record, the deleted record is kept as a ghost record. Later, the deleted record is purged by the ghost record removal process. When you disable this process, the deleted record is not purged. Therefore, the space that the deleted record consumes is not freed. This behavior affects space consumption and the performance of scan operations. SCOPE: Global. If you turn off this trace flag, the ghost record removal process works correctly. KB 920093

698

SQL 9 – Performance of INSERT operations against a table with an identity column may be slow when compared to SQL 8. KB 940545

699

Turn off transaction logging for the entire SQL dataserver.

806

Cause 'DBCC-style' page auditing to be performed whenever a database page is read into the buffer pool. This is useful to catch cases where pages are being corrupted in memory and then written out to disk with a new page checksum. When they're read back in the checksum will look correct, but the page is corrupt (because of the previous memory corruption). This page auditing goes someway to catching this - especially on non-Enterprise Edition systems that don't have the 'checksum sniffer'.

809

SQL 8 – Limits the amount of Lazy write activity.

815

SQL 8/9 – Enables latch enforcement. SQL Server 8 (with service pack 4) and SQL Server 9 can perform latch enforcement for data pages found in the buffer pool cache. Latch enforcement changes the virtual memory protection state while database page status changes from "clean" to "dirty" ("dirty" means modified through INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE operation). If an attempt is made to modify a data page while latch enforcement is set, it causes an exception and creates a mini-dump in SQL Server installation's LOG directory. Microsoft support can examine the contents of such mini-dump to determine the cause of the exception. In order to modify the data page the connection must first acquire a modification latch. Once the data modification latch is acquired the page protection is changed to read-write. Once the modification latch is released the page protection changes back to read-only.

SQL 8 - When enabled checkpoint ignores the recovery interval target and keeps steady I/O otherwise it uses recovery interval setting as a target for the length of time that checkpoint will take – KB 906121.

SQL 8+ – Causes SQL Server to use Windows large-page allocations for the memory that is allocated for the buffer pool. The page size varies depending on the hardware platform, but the page size may be from 2 MB to 16 MB. Large pages are allocated at startup and are kept throughout the lifetime of the process. Trace flag 834 improves performance by increasing the efficiency of the translation look-aside buffer (TLB) in the CPU. Applies only to 64-bit versions & you should have the Lock pages in memory right granted to turn this on. It may prevent the server from starting if memory is fragmented and large pages cannot be allocated. Therefore its better suited dedicated hosts. Scope STARTUP.

Causes SQL Server to size the buffer pool at startup based on the value of the max server mem option instead of based on the total physical memory. You can use trace flag 836 to reduce the number of buffer descriptors that are allocated at startup in 32-bit AWE mode. Scope Startup.

SQL 9 - Used space in tempdb increases continuously when you run a query that creates internal objects in tempdb. KB 947204.

1117

Grows all data files at once, else it goes in turns.

1118

Switches allocations in tempDB from 1pg at a time (for first 8 pages) to one extent. There is now a cache of temp tables. When a new temp table is created on a cold system it uses the same mechanism as for SQL 8. When it is dropped though, instead of all the pages being deallocated completely, one IAM page & one data page are left allocated, then the temp table is put into a special cache. Subsequent temp table creations will look in the cache to see if they can just grab a pre-created temp table. If so, this avoids accessing the allocation bitmaps completely. The temp table cache isn't huge (32 tables), but this can still lead to a big drop in latch contention in tempdb. http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Misconceptions-around-TF-1118.aspx

SQL 7 - Forces allocation to use free pages for text or image data and maintain efficiency of storage. 1197 applies only in the case of SQL 7 – SP3. Helpful in case when DBCC SHRINKFILE and SHRINKDATABASE commands may not work because of sparsely populated text, ntext, or image columns

1197

1200

Prints detailed lock information as every request for a lock is made (the process ID and type of lock requested).

1202

Insert blocked lock requests into syslocks.

1204

Returns resources and types of locks participating in a deadlock and command affected. Scope: global

1205

More detailed information about the command being executed at the time of a deadlock. Documented in SQL 7 BOL.

1206

Used to complement flag 1204 by displaying other locks held by deadlock parties.

1211

Disables lock escalation based on memory pressure, or based on number of locks. The SQL Server Database Engine will not escalate row or page locks to table locks.

Using this trace flag can generate excessive numbers of locks. This can slow the performance of the Database Engine, or cause 1204 errors (unable to allocate lock resource) because of insufficient memory. For more information, see Lock Escalation (Database Engine).

If both trace flag 1211 and 1224 are set, 1211 takes precedence over 1224. However, because trace flag 1211 prevents escalation in every case, even under memory pressure, we recommend that you use 1224. This helps avoid "out-of-locks" errors when many locks are being used. Scope: global or session

1216

SQL 7 - Disables Health reporting. Lock monitor when detects a (worker thread) resource level blocking scenario. If a SPID that owns a lock is currently queued to the scheduler, because all the assigned worker threads have been created and all the assigned worker threads are in an un-resolvable wait state, the following error message is written to the SQL Server error log:

Returns the resources & types of locks that are participating in a deadlock and also the current command affected, in an XML format that does not comply with any XSD schema. Scope: global

1224

Disables lock escalation based on the number of locks. However, memory pressure can still activate lock escalation (when > 40%). The Database Engine escalates row or page locks to table (or partition) locks if the amount of memory used by lock objects exceeds one of the following conditions:

40% of the memory that is used by Db Engine, exclusive of memory allocation using AWE. This is applicable when the locks parameter of sp_configure is set to 0.

Forty percent of the lock memory that is configured by using the locks parameter of sp_configure.

If both trace flag 1211 & 1224 are set, 1211 takes precedence. However, because trace flag 1211 prevents escalation in every case, even under memory pressure, it’s recommend to use 1224 which helps avoid "out-of-locks" errors when many locks are being used.

Note: Lock escalation to the table- or HoBT-level granularity can also be controlled by using the LOCK_ESCALATION option of the ALTER TABLE statement. Scope: global / session

1261

SQL 8 - Disables Health reporting. Lock monitor when detects a (worker thread) resource level blocking scenario. If a SPID that owns a lock is currently queued to the scheduler, because all the assigned worker threads have been created and all the assigned worker threads are in an un-resolvable wait state, the following error message is written to the SQL Server error log: Error 1229: Process ID %d:%d owns resources that are blocking processes on scheduler %d.

1400

SQL 9 RTM – Enables creation of database mirroring endpoint, which is required for setting up and using database mirroring. Scope: startup

1448

SQL 9/10 - When the principal database is running exposed or is isolated the Log Reader Agent will waits for log records to harden on the mirror before replicating them to the Distributor. When publisher is started with trace flag 1448, the Log Reader Agent can continue replicating changes regardless of the mirroring state. Scope – GLOBAL. KB 937041

1449

When you use SNAC to connect to an instance of a principal server in a database mirroring session: "The connection attempted to fail over to a server that does not have a failover partner". KB 936179

SQL 8 - When you capture a SQL Profiler trace in a file and then you try to import the trace files into tables by using the fn_trace_gettable function no rows may be returned. KB 911678

1905

2301

Makes your optimizer work harder by enabling advanced optimizations that are specific to decision support queries, applies to processing of large data sets.

2328

SQL 9+ - Makes cardinality estimates upon resulting selectivity. The reasoning for this is that one or more of the constants may be statement parameters, which would change from one execution of the statement to the next.

2330

Stops the collection of statistics for sys.db_index_usage_stats.

2335

SQL 9+ Amount of memory available to SQL Server affects the execution plan generated though SQL Server generates the most optimal plan based on this value, but occasionally it may generate an inefficient plan for a specific query when you configure a large value for max server memory. Using 2335 as a startup parameter will cause SQL Server to generate a plan that is more conservative in terms of memory consumption when executing the query. It does not limit how much memory SQL Server can use. The memory configured for SQL Server will still be used by data cache, query execution & other consumers. KB 2413549.

2340

SQL 9/10 - Query processor may introduce a sort operation for optimization, though not required where the particular plan only touches a smaller number of rows. Setup cost for the sort operation may outweigh its benefits thus resulting in poor performance. KB 2009160

2371

SQL 10.5 SP1 – Before this automatic statistics were triggered when a column would get modifications exceeding 20% of the # of rows in the table. On enabling this flag the standard 20% changes to a dynamic value if table has more than 25000 rows & reduces as the count increases.

2382

SQL 8 - Statistics collected for system tables.

2388

SQL 9 - Detect when the leading column of a statistics object is ascending and mark or brand it as ascending. Statistics object that belong to an ascending column is branded as “ascending” after three updates on the statistics. It’s necessary to update it with ascending column values so that when the third update occurs, SQL Server brands the statistics object as ascending. Flag 2388 helps to check the statistics’ brand, when turned on the result of the DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS, has an additional column called Leading column type with the brand of the column.

2389

SQL 9 - Tracks nature of columns by subsequent statistics updates. When SQL Server determines that the statistics increase three times, the column is branded ascending. The statistics will be updated automatically at query compile.

2390

SQL 9 - Does the same like 2389 even if ascending nature of the column is not known and -- never enable without 2389.

2440

SQL 10 - Parallel query execution strategy on partitioned tables. SQL 9 used single thread per partition parallel query execution strategy. In SQL 10, multiple threads can be allocated to a single partition by turning on this flag.

Used with DBCC CHECKTABLE to see the total count of forward records in a table

2514

Used with DBCC CHECKTABLE to see the total count of ghost records in a table

2520

Forces DBCC HELP to return syntax of undocumented DBCC statements. If 2520 is not turned on, DBCC HELP will refuse to give you the syntax stating: "No help available for DBCC statement 'undocumented statement'". dbcc help ('?')

SQL 8+ Disables parallel checking of objects by DBCC CHECKDB, CHECKFILEGROUP and CHECKTABLE. By default, the degree of parallelism is automatically determined by the query processor. The maximum degree of parallelism is configured just like that of parallel queries. For more information, see max degree of parallelism Option.

Parallel DBCC should typically be left enabled. For DBCC CHECKDB, the query processor reevaluates and automatically adjusts parallelism with each table or batch of tables checked. Sometimes, checking may start when the server is almost idle. An administrator who knows that the load will increase before checking is complete may want to manually decrease or disable parallelism. Disabling parallel checking of DBCC can cause it to take much longer to complete and if DBCC is run with the TABLOCK feature enabled and parallelism set off, tables may be locked for longer periods of time. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176064.aspxScope: global / session

SQL 8 - Used with Sqldumper.exe to get certain dumps. In range 254x – 255x.

2544

Creates a full memory dump.

2546

All threads in SQL Server process are dumped (mini dump).

2549

SQL 10.5 – DBCC CHECKDB builds an internal list of pages to read per unique disk drive across all database files. This logic determines unique disk drives based on the drive letter of the physical file name of each file. If the underlying disks are actually unique when the drive letters or not, the DBCC CHECKDB command would treat these as one disk. When this trace flag is enabled, each database file is assumed to be on a unique disk drive. Do not use this trace flag unless you know that each file is based on a unique physical disk. KB 2634571, Scope – Any

2551

SQL 9 – Creates a full filtered dump which is additional information for the dump file.

2562

SQL 10.5 – As an effect the space requirements for tempdb may increase as much as 5% or more of the user database that is being processed. Therefore, it’s recommend to pre-size tempdb to at least 5% of scanned database.

When enabled it runs the DBCC CHECKDB command in a single "batch" regardless of the number of indexes in the database. By default, the DBCC CHECKDB command tries to minimize tempdb resources by limiting the number of indexes or "facts" that it generates by using a "batches" concept. This trace flag forces all processing into one batch.

This flag improves the internal processing for determining which pages to read from the database. This reduces the contention on the DBCC_MULTIOBJECT_SCANNER latch. KB 2634571, Scope – Any

SQL 6.5 - Sets the @@ERROR system function to 50000 for RAISERROR messages with severity levels of 10 or less. When disabled, sets the @@ERROR system function to 0 for RAISERROR messages with severity levels of 10 or less.

Cause LogMgr::ValidateBackedupBlock to be skipped during backup and restore operations.

3117

SQL 9 - SQL Server 2005 tries to restore the log files and the data files in a single step which some third-party snapshot backup utilities do not support. Turing on 3117 does things the SQL 8 way multiple-step restore process. KB 915385

Restore the file or the file group from the full database backup. The database remains in a restoring state.

Restore the transaction log or logs from the log backup chain.

3205

If a tape drive supports hardware compression, either the DUMP or BACKUP statement uses it. With this trace flag, you can disable hardware compression for tape drivers. This is useful when you want to exchange tapes with other sites or tape drives that do not support compression. Scope: global / session

3213

Trace SQL Server activity during backup process so that we will come to know which part of backup process is taking more time.

Cause auditing of transaction log records as they're read (during transaction rollback or log recovery). This is useful because there is no equivalent to page checksums for transaction log records and so no way to detect whether log records are being corrupted e careful with these trace flags - I don't recommend using them unless you are experiencing corruptions that you can't diagnose. Turning them on will cause a big CPU hit because of the extra auditing that's happening.

3502

Tracks CHECKPOINT - Prints a message to the log at the start and end of each checkpoint.

3503

Indicates whether the checkpoint at the end of automatic recovery was skipped for a database (this applies only to read-only databases).

3504

For internal testing. Will raise a bogus log-out-of-space condition from checkpoint()

3505

Disables automatic checkpoints. May increase recovery time and can prevent log space reuse until the next checkpoint is issued. Make sure to issue manual checkpoints on all read/write databases at appropriate time intervals. Note does not prevent the internal checkpoints that are issued by certain commands, such as BACKUP.

3601

Stack trace when error raised. Also see 3603

3602

Records all error and warning messages sent to the client.

3603

SQL Server fails to install on tricore, Bypass SMT check is enabled, flags are added via registry. Also see 3601.

3604

Sends trace output to the client. Used only when setting trace flags with DBCC TRACEON and DBCC TRACEOFF.

3605

Sends trace output to the error log. (if SQL Server is started from CMD output also appears on the screen)

3607

SQL 7+ Skips the recovery of databases on the startup of SQL Server and clears the TempDB. Setting this flag lets you get past certain crashes, but there is a chance that some data will be lost

3608

SQL 7+ Prevents Instance from automatically starting-recovering any database except master. Databases will be started and recovered when accessed. Some features, such as snapshot isolation and read committed snapshot, might not work.

Works when SQL Server is started as an application.

3609

Skips the creation of the tempdb database at startup. Use this trace flag if the device or devices on which tempdb resides are problematic or problems exist in the model database.

Print diagnostic information. Trace Flag 3635 Diagnostics are written to the console that started it. There are not written to the errorlog, even if 3605 is turned on.

3640

Eliminates sending DONE_IN_PROC messages to client for each statement in stored procedure. This is similar to the session setting of SET NOCOUNT ON, but when set as a trace flag, every client session is handled this way.

3654

Allocations to stack.

3659

3688

SQL 9+, Avoids messages with ID 19030 and message ID 19031 are logged in the Errorlog when many traces are started & stopped. KB 922578. Scope: global.

3689

Logs extended errors to errorlog when network disconnect occurs, turned off by default. Will dump out the socket error code this can sometimes give you a clue as to the root cause.

3913

SQL 7/8 - SQL Server does not update the rowcnt column of the sysindexes system table until the transaction is committed. When turned on the optimizer gets row count information from in-memory metadata that is saved to sysindexes system table when the transaction commits.

4001

Very verbose logging of each login attempt to the error log. Includes tons of information.

4010

Allows only shared memory connections to the SQL Server. Meaning, you will only be able to connect from the server machine itself. Client connections over TCP/IP or named pipes will not happen.

4013

Writes an entry to error log when a new connection is established. For each connection that occurs, the trace flag writes two entries that look like:

Used to bypass automatically started (startup) procedures, this is a subset of startup option –f. TIP: Each SP consumes one worker thread while executing so you may prefer to make one startup procedure that calls others.

4029

Logs extended errors to errorlog when network disconnect occurs, turned off by default. Will dump out the socket error code this can sometimes give you a clue as to the root cause.

4030

Prints both a byte and ASCII representation of the receive buffer. Used when you want to see what queries a client is sending to SQL Server. You can use this trace flag if you experience a protection violation and want to determine which statement caused it. Typically, you can set this flag globally or use SQL Server Enterprise Manager. You can also use DBCC INPUTBUFFER.

4031

Prints both a byte and ASCII representation of the send buffers (what SQL Server sends back to the client). You can also use DBCC OUTPUTBUFFER.

4032

Traces the SQL commands coming in from the client. When enabled with 3605 it will direct those all to the error log.

4044

SA account can be unlocked by rebooting server with trace flag. If sa (or sso_role) password is lost, add this to your RUN_serverfile. This will generate new password when server started.

SQL 9+ Prints TDS packets received from the client to console.– Startup only.

4102

SQL 9 - Query performance is slow if the execution plan of the query contains semi join operators Typically, semi join operators are generated when the query contains the IN keyword or the EXISTS keyword. Enable flag 4102 and 4118 to overcome this. KB – 940128

4103

4104

SQL 9 - Overestimating cardinality of JOIN operator. When additional join predicates are involved, this problem may increase the estimated cost of the JOIN operator to the point where the query optimizer chooses a different join order. When the query optimizer chooses a different join order, SQL 9 system performance may be slow. KB - 920346

4105

4106

4107

SQL 9 - When you run a query that references a partitioned table, query performance may decrease. KB 923849

4108

4109

4110

4111

4112

4115

4116

SQL 9 - Query runs slowly when using joins between a local and a remote table. KB 950880

SQL 9 - Query performance is slow if the execution plan of the query contains semi join operators Typically, semi join operators are generated when the query contains the IN keyword or the EXISTS keyword. Enable flag 4102 and 4118 to overcome this. KB 940128

4119

4120

4101

SQL 9 - Query that involves an outer join operation runs very slowly. However, if you use the FORCE ORDER query hint in the query, the query runs much faster. Additionally, the execution plan of the query contains the following text in the Warnings column: NO JOIN PREDICATE.

SQL 9 - Query may take more time to finish if using an inner join to join a derived table that uses DISTINCT keyword. KB 949854

4126

4127

SQL 9 - Compilation time of some queries is very long in an x64-based version. Basically its more than execution time because more memory allocations are necessary in the compilation process. Kb 953569

4128

4129

4131

4133

SQL 9/10 - Size of error log file grows very quickly when query notifications are created and destroyed in a high ratio. KB 958006

4134

Incorrect results or constraint violation when you run a SELECT or DML statement that uses the row_number function and a parallel execution plan in SQL Server 2008Purpose 2: Results may change every time that you run a parallel query in SQL Server 2005, in SQL Server 2008, or in SQL Server 2008 R2 if the query uses a ranking function and if the computer has eight or more CPUsKB Article 1:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2589980KB Article 2:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2546901First Added: SQL 2008 CU6 or SQL 2008 SP1 CU2Versions: SQL 2008

FIX: Poor performance when you run a query that contains correlated AND predicates in SQL Server 2008 or in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012. KB 2658214

4138

A query may take a long time to run if the query optimizer uses the Top operator in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012. KB 2667211

4199

Over time there were multiple fixes, each controlled with a different trace flag. This can make troubleshooting query performance difficult and time-consuming. To improve the troubleshooting process, trace flag 4199 was added in CuP 6 for SQL Server 2005 SP3, CuP 7 for SQL Server 2008, CuP 7 for SQL Server 2008 SP1, and SQL Server 2008 R2. This one trace flag can be used to enable all the fixes that were previously made for the query processor under many trace flags. In addition, all future query processor fixes will be controlled by using this trace flag. Scope: global / session.

When you use trace flag 4618 together with trace flag 4610, the number of entries in the cache store is limited to 8,192. When the limit is reached, SQL 2005 removes some entries from the TokenAndPermUserStore cache store. KB 959823.

4612

Disable the ring buffer logging - no new entries will be made into the ring buffer.

4613

Generate a minidump file whenever an entry is logged into the ring buffer.

4614

Enables SQL Server authenticated logins that use Windows domain password policy enforcement to log on to the instance even though the SQL Server service account is locked out or disabled on the Windows domain controller. KB 925744.

4616

Makes server-level metadata visible to application roles. In SQL Server, an application role cannot access metadata outside its own database because application roles are not associated with a server-level principal. This is a change of behavior from earlier versions of SQL Server. Setting this global flag disables the new restrictions, and allows for application roles to access server-level metadata. Scope: global

4618

Limits number of entries per user cache store to 1024. It may incur a small CPU overhead as when removing old cache entries when new entries are inserted. It performs this action to limit the size of the cache store growth. However, the CPU overhead is spread over time. Kb 933564

4621

SQL 9 – After 4610 & 4618 you can still customize the quota for TokenAndPermUserStore cache store that is based on the current workload. KB 959823

5101

Forces all I/O requests to go through engine 0. This removes the contention between processors but could create a bottleneck if engine 0 becomes busy with non-I/O tasks. For more information...5101/5102.

5102

Prevents engine 0 from running any non-affinitied tasks. For more information...5101/5102.

5302

Alters default behavior of select…INTO (and other processes) that lock system tables for the duration of the transaction. This trace flag disables such locking during an implicit transaction.

6527

Disables generation of a memory dump on the first occurrence of an out-of-memory exception in CLR integration. By default, SQL Server generates a small memory dump on the first occurrence of an out-of-memory exception in the CLR.

The behavior of the trace flag is as follows:

If this is used as a startup trace flag, a memory dump is never generated. However, a memory dump may be generated if other trace flags are used.

If this trace flag is enabled on a running server, a memory dump will not be automatically generated from that point on. However, if a memory dump has already been generated due to an out-of-memory exception in the CLR, this trace flag will have no effect.

Scope: global

7103

Disable table lock promotion for text columns. KB 230044

7300

Retrieves extended information about any error you encounter when you execute a distributed query.

7501

Dynamic cursors are used by default on forward-only cursors. Dynamic cursors are faster than in earlier versions and no longer require unique indexes. 75401 4disables dynamic cursor enhancements and reverts to version 6.0 behavior.

7502

Disables the caching of cursor plans for extended stored procedures.

7505

Enables version 6.x handling of return codes when calling dbcursorfetchex and the resulting cursor position follows the end of the cursor result set.

SQL 9 - Full-text index population for the indexed view is very slow. KB 928537

7646

SQL 10 - Avoids blocking when using full text indexing. An issue we experienced that full text can be slow when there is a high number of updates to the index and is caused by blocking on the docidfilter internal table.

Disables the collection of additional diagnostic information for Resource Monitor. You can use the information in this ring buffer to diagnose out-of-memory conditions. Scope GLOBAL.

8012

Records an event in the schedule ring buffer every time that one of the following events occurs:

A scheduler switches context to another worker.

A worker is suspended or resumed.

A worker enters the preemptive mode or the non-preemptive mode.

You can use the diagnostic information in this ring buffer to analyze scheduling problems. For example, you can use the information in this ring buffer to troubleshoot problems when SQL Server stops responding. Trace flag 8012 disables recording of events for schedulers. Scope Startup.

8015

SQL 9 - CPU utilization of a CPU in a single node increases to 100 percent when you use SQL Server 2005 on a multiprocessor computer that uses NUMA architecture. Scope - Startup KB 948450

Disables the creation of the ring buffer, and no exception information is recorded. The exception ring buffer records the last 256 exceptions that are raised on a node. Each record contains some information about the error and contains a stack trace. A record is added to the ring buffer when an exception is raised. Scope Startup

8019

Disables stack collection during the record creation, has no effect if trace flag 8018 is turned on. Disabling the exception ring buffer makes it more difficult to diagnose problems that are related to internal server errors. Scope Startup

8020

SQL Server uses the size of the working set when SQL Server interprets the global memory state signals from the operating system. Trace flag 8020 removes the size of the working set from consideration when SQL Server interprets the global memory state signals. If you use this trace flag incorrectly, heavy paging occurs, and the performance is poor. Therefore, contact Microsoft Support before you use. Scope Startup.

8030

SQL 9 - Occurs only on 64-bit servers with 16+ GB of physical memory. On SQL 9 query performance may degrade with time and when you query the sys.dm_os_wait_stats dynamic management view, you may notice that there are many rows in which the values of the wait_type column are SOS_RESERVEDMEMBLOCKLIST or DBCC MEMORYSTATUS. This situation indicates that many multipage allocations exist. KB 917035

8033

SQL 9 - Disable the reporting of CPU Drift errors in the SQL Server error log like time stamp counter of CPU on scheduler id 1 is not synchronized with other CPUs.

8038

SQL 9+ Database engine & SSRS use SQLOS which exposes an internal timer which if set to a 1ms granularity, more power consumption may occur on Windows client. 8038 avoids it affecting the output of some DMV’s. Scope Startup KB 972767

8048

Newer hardware with multi-core CPUs can present more than 8 CPUs within a single NUMA node. Microsoft has observed that when you approach and exceed 8 CPUs per node the NODE based partitioning may not scale as well for specific query patterns. However, using trace flag 8048 (startup parameter only requiring restart of the SQL Server process) all NODE based partitioning is upgraded to CPU based partitioning. Remember this requires more memory overhead but can provide performance increases on these systems.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED THE TRACE FLAG?

The issue is commonly identified by looking as the DMVs dm_os_wait_stats and dm_os_spin_stats for types (CMEMTHREAD and SOS_SUSPEND_QUEUE). Microsoft CSS usually sees the spins jump into the trillions and the waits become a hot spot.

SQL 9+ Startup only – Allows use of 1ms times even when patched. Check 8038 for details. KB 972767

8202

Used to replicate UPDATE as DELETE/INSERT pair at the publisher. i.e. UPDATE commands at the publisher can be run as an "on-page DELETE/INSERT" or a "full DELETE/INSERT". If the UPDATE command is run as an "on-page DELETE/INSERT," the Logreader send UDPATE command to the subscriber, If the UPDATE command is run as a "full DELETE/INSERT," the Logreader send UPDATE as DELETE/INSERT Pair. If you turn on trace flag 8202, then UPDATE commands at the publisher will be always send to the subscriber as DELETE/INSERT pair.

Databases in SQL 8 do not have a Service Broker ID. If you restore these databases on SQL 9 by using the WITH NORECOVERY option, these databases will not be upgraded causing mirroring & log-shipping configurations to fail. KB 959008.

8501

Writes detailed information about Ms-DTC context & state changes to the log.

8599

Allows you to use a save-point within a distributed transaction.

8602

Ignore index hints that are specified in query/procedure.

8649

Forces //ism by setting the cost threshold for parallelism from 1 to 0.

8679

Prevents the SQL Server optimizer from using a Hash Match Team operator.

8687

Used to disable query parallelism.

8721

Dumps information into the error log when AutoStat has been run.

8722

Disable all other types of hints. This includes the OPTION clause.

8744

Disables pre-fetching for the Nested Loops operator. Incorrect use of this trace flag may cause additional physical reads when SQL Server executes plans that contain the Nested Loops operator. For more information about the Nested Loops operator, see the "Logical and physical operators reference" topic in SQL Server 9 BOL.
You can turn on trace flag 8744 at startup or in a user session. When you turn on trace flag 8744 at startup, the trace flag has global scope. When you turn on trace flag 8744 in a user session, the trace flag has session scope.

8755

Disable any locking hints like READONLY. Allows SQL Server to dynamically select the best locking hint for the query.

8765

Allows use of variable length data, from ODBC driver; fixes the issue of a field returning the wrong data length.

8783

Allows DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE statements to honor the SET ROWCOUNT ON setting when enabled.

8816

Logs every two-digit year conversion to a four-digit year.

9059

SQL 8 - Turns back behavior to SP3 after a SP4 installation, this allows to choose an index seek when comparing numeric columns or numeric constants that are of different precision or scale; else would have to change schema/code.

When enabled and a plan is compiled or recompiled there is a listing of statistics which is being fully loaded & used to produce cardinality and distribution estimates for some plan alternative or other.

9259

SQL 9/10 - An access violation occurs on running a query marked by the following message and a dump in the log folder: KB 970279 / 971490

Msg 0, Level 11, State 0, Line 0 - A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded.
Msg 0, Level 20, State 0, Line 0 - A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded.

9292

When enabled the query analyzer provides a report of statistics objects while compiling / recompiling the query. Only header is loaded for the potentially useful statistics.

9268

SQL 8 - When SQL Server runs a parameterized query that contains several IN clauses, each with a large number of values, SQL Server may return the following error message after a minute or more of high CPU utilization: KB 325658

SQL 11 cu 2 - Reverts original permissions for DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS i.e. allows for users who have SELECT permissions to run the DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS command in case the following conditions are true (KB 2683304):

Users have SELECT permissions on all columns in the statistics object.

Users have SELECT permissions on all columns in a filter condition if the filter exists.

9532

SQL 11 CTP3 - to get more than 1 availability group replica in CTP3 Scope Startup.